A motor-vehicle accident on Route 80 early Friday (Aug. 26) morning led to a police manhunt that had residents of Frelinghuysen and Hope on alert for several hours.
According to the New Jersey State Police, troopers responded around 7:45 a.m. to reports of an accident around mile marker 13.8 on Route 80 eastbound in Frelinghuysen.
Upon arrival troopers found an unoccupied blue Subaru that had been involved in the crash and learned that the vehicle had been reported as stolen.
At the prompting of NJSP, authorities in Frelinghuysen and Hope took to social media to alert residents that the vehicle’s occupant had fled into the woods in the area of the Forest Manor nursing home on State Park Road in Frelinghuysen, and that they should be on the lookout, especially in the area of the woods and fields along State Park and Shiloh roads.
Police later located and arrested the suspect, who they identified as Hadith Caesar, 29, of Carteret in Middlesex County, and charged him with receiving stolen property, eluding and possession of a controlled, dangerous substance.
Caesar was lodged in the Warren County jail in Belvidere, according to NJSP, who added that the incident remains under investigation.
